Westchester County Police racial profiling statistics released

The county has released its semi-annual report on traffic stops by the Westchster County Police broken down by race, ethnicity and gender.

Required under a 2001 law, the stats are intended to track whether the department is engaging in racial profiling. They show that of 8,440 people stopped from January to June, 78 percent were men, 47 percent were white, 22 percent Hispanic and 21 percent black. In 73 percent of stops a ticket was issued and in 3 percent an arrest was made.

Forty-eight percent of tickets were issued to white drivers, 23 percent to Hispanic and 19 percent to black drivers. Once stopped, 5.3 percent of blacks were arrested, 3.9 percent of Hispanics and 1.9 percent of whites.

Speeding was the most common reason for traffic stops, followed by vehicle equipment violations and restricted vehicles.

According to the 2010 census, 68 percent of the Westchester population is white, 14.5 percent is African-American and 5 percent is Asian. Almost 22 percent of people are Hispanic (which the Census Bureau counts separately from race as Hispanic people can be white or black or another race).